Here in Hawai`i I never have to worry about heating my fermenting beer. Just keeping it cool and so I have a freezer, top loading. I'll have to play w/the air temp and the liquid temp to see the differences, but you guys w/refridgerators, remember every time you open the door all that cool air flows out the bottom and is replaced by the air outside. At least in a chest freezer you don't let all your cold air out when lifting the top.

__________________
Kaiser Ridge Brewing
-------------------------
Bottled in the refer: Malahini Pale Ale
Bottled in the refe: Black IPA
Bottled in the refe: Old Glory Stout
Bottled in the refe: American Imperial Stout
Bottled in the refer: Dunkelweizen
Bottled in the refer Oktoberfest

I cannot get this heater to come on.. hooked up a different one and it is running I don't get why tis keeps happening. the room is the size of a small closet and very well insulated. a small electric heater can run you out of it but this is the second one to just quit. I cannot get this one to come back on at all.

__________________

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mikethepoolguy

I started brewing 69 days ago, 35 gal so far. SWMBO hasnt complained yet! Better than the hookers, gambling, and crack I used to do, I guess.

What's the air temperature when it's shutting off? Does the heater have a thermostat? Just guessing, but it's possible the air temperature rises quickly, trips the thermostat, and shuts off the heater. If that's the case, the air temperature should drop while the fermenter temperature rises. Eventually the air will drop below the thermostat point and the heater should come back on. This should be fine, eventually you'll reach equilibrium where air temperature = beer temperature (ignoring any heating the yeast are doing to the beer).

But that's just a guess. Do the heaters come on if you take them out into a larger, cooler room?

What's the air temperature when it's shutting off? Does the heater have a thermostat? Just guessing, but it's possible the air temperature rises quickly, trips the thermostat, and shuts off the heater. If that's the case, the air temperature should drop while the fermenter temperature rises. Eventually the air will drop below the thermostat point and the heater should come back on. This should be fine, eventually you'll reach equilibrium where air temperature = beer temperature (ignoring any heating the yeast are doing to the beer).

But that's just a guess. Do the heaters come on if you take them out into a larger, cooler room?

nope.. the one I took out this morning I set outside hooked to an extention cord and it took 2 hours before I could turn it back on ( may have been faster but I didn't continually try) i moved the heater to the floor rather than on a shelf I had built and it seems to be working better BUT The outside temp has risen a LOT so it isn't having to work often. I bought another remote sensor and am monitoring ambient and the beer temp from in here now....not sure that anything is working properly now........

__________________

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mikethepoolguy

I started brewing 69 days ago, 35 gal so far. SWMBO hasnt complained yet! Better than the hookers, gambling, and crack I used to do, I guess.